General Motors and Starbucks spend more on healthcare than on buying steel or coffee.

Just as I was done with reading a news report from Associated Press - "Obama hopes to avoid Clinton health care missteps" (reproduced below) - which mentioned the sensational fact that GM spends more on healthcare than on buying steel for manufacturing cars, One of our top surgeons forwarded me this rather emotional message from a recent US patient who came to Apollo Hospitals for Hip Surgery. She could not afford to get the surgery done at a local private hospital in US and decided to fly to India to save almost 45000 US dollars. The remarkable thing is that she decided to come to Apollo Hospitals for its exceptional clinical success rates, superior technology at a fraction of US cost but was overwhelmed with India's centuries-old traditions of Eastern care and warmth. "Vasudhaiv Kutumbakkam" as our 5000 year old scriptures taught us to believe - the world is our extended family.
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Dear Doctor,

On this national holiday of Thanksgiving and gratitude here, in the U.S., I must express my thanks to you and your staff once again for my profound experience in India. It is not only for the gift of my hip, but for what keeps expanding within my being. My short time in India opened my heart in a way that I have never experienced. Returning to America was almost like shock. I have felt disoriented on a personal level. It is propelling me into yet another and deeper spiritual/emotional exploration. With all of it's many layers, India, is truly the Mother country of the planet to which the soul longs to return.

There is no need for a response unless you care to, I just wanted to express what is in my heart to you this day.

Warmly,
A Smith
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Obama hopes to avoid Clinton health care missteps

12/6/2008, 10:36 a.m. EST
By KEVIN FREKING
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Barack Obama and his aides are determined not to repeat the mistakes the Clinton administration made 15 years ago in trying to revamp the nation's health care system. That means applying some of the lessons learned — moving fast, seizing momentum and not letting it go.

Tom Daschle, Obama's point man on the issue, discussed the early strategy, although details of Obama's proposals won't be finalized for a while Already, however, the political and public relations parts are coming into place..

The strategy begins with giving people the chance to highlight their concerns and experiences. Daschle invited people around the nation to hold what amounts to house parties from Dec. 15-31. Obama's transition team will gather the information from those meetings and post the material on its Web site, Change.gov: The Obama-Biden Transition Team.

Daschle did not provide any details about how the incoming administration would pay for expanding coverage. Instead, he made the case that not dealing with health care would worsen the economic problems because companies such as General Motors spend more on health care than steel and Starbucks spent more on health care than on coffee.
"Health care is going to destroy many of our manufacturing industries unless we fix the system," he said.

He outlined an array of problems with the current system: high costs, lack of access and mediocre quality. He said the myth has long been that the U.S. had the best health care system in the world, but statistics and an increase in medical tourism show that is not the case.